"Dedicated the half hour walk I spent in deep contemplation to decide what character to play in Suikoden 3."

As hard as this might be to believe, Saga Frontier is one of my favorite RPG's of all time. I got it shortly after it came out and I have played through it with everyone TWICE. I did eventually get rid of it at one point, but I regretted it and I had to get myself another copy. Chances are you have heard of this game which many people say is one of Squares worst RPG's ever made. I am not going to praise how good this game is, I am just going to tell you about it.

Gameplay:10 The main thing that was boasted about this game was that you had 7 different people you could play as and they each have a different story following them. Most of them tell a decent story except for two which don't have much of a story at all. Lute and Blue. If you are playing this for the first time, DO NOT play LUTE. You will be given a very bad impression of this game. I bet that many of the people that have badmouthed this game have started out with Lute. If you want to see a good story play Red or Asellus. They have the best ones. Riki also has a pretty good one too. But Asellus is my personal favorite.

One of the problems people have seemed to have with this game is that they think it is too non-linear. Which it is very non-linear. You go almost anywhere you want whenever you want. I never really felt like uncomfortable with it though. And sometimes you will be left wondering what to do next and that might get to some.

Another thing that probably bothers people is that you do not gain stats the same way as you do in other RPG's. After every battle some of your stats will go up a bit. It might not go up at all depending on the enemies you fight. Also as you get stronger, the enemies will also get stronger. It’s not necessarily based on the place you are at.

I really do like the way the battle system works on this game. You can have up to Five people in your battle party at one time. You can have fifteen people total. Well, I guess they aren't all people:) The battles are all turn based and there are several specific weapon types you can use. Sword, Hand To Hand, Gun, and Magic. Sword being my weapon of choice. Each weapon class has specific skills that you can learn for it. For example: Sword- Double Slash. Hand To Hand- Suplex. You learn these skills randomly in battles when you attack the enemy. But some characters do have a higher learning rate than others do, so they may learn the moves quicker than others. There are quite a few skills to learn, but you can never have more than 8 skills equipped at a time. If you have multiple chars using different moves, then there is a good chance that you will get a combo attack which will do more damage than all the attacks being done separately would do.

There are also a fair amount of side quests ( Like the Rune or Arcane magic quests.) you can go on as well. And none of them are dependant on which character you are using, but some of the characters you get are dependant on which of the main characters you are using.

Story:8 The story varies depending on whoever it is that you are using. Some don’t have very much of a story at all, ( Like Lute or Blue.) While others have a really in depth story. (Like Red or Asellus.)

In Red’s story his father gets killed and both his mom and sister get captured by the evil ''Black X''. After being attacked and near death he becomes a super hero named “Alkaiser” and seeks revenge on Black X.

With Asellus you get killed at the very beginning and then you are infused with the blood of a Mystic by Orlouge “ The Lord of the mystics” and you become a half Mystic. Not agreeing with Lord Orlouge you decide to leave the land of the Mystics. But Orlouge refuses to accept this and sends people to bring you back to him.

Graphics:7 The graphics on this game are all right. I can't really say much else because nothing really stood out to me.

Sound:10 The music in this game is quite good. I like it very much. My personal favorite tune's being in Koorong, Wakatu, One of the many boss musics, and this one really groovy tune that it will only make for a few of the people due to the location they must go to.

Difficulty:10 The difficulty in this game varies depending on who you are using. I would say that either Blue or Riki have the highest level of difficulty. Especially on Riki’s quest, because he has the most difficult, and also the most fun boss in the entire game where you fight the “Ring Lord” and you have to beat him doing different combos on him.

Replay Value:10 With 7 different people to go through the game with and a decent amount of side quests the replay value is very high.

Buy or Rent: If after reading this review you still aren't sure about buying this game, then go and rent it. I suggest that everyone should at least rent it so that they can see if they really like it or not.